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96.1 FM | 780 AM | Yours for Western AlaskaSat, 10 Dec 2016 00:42:40 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7http://www.knom.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/cropped-KNOM-K-Logo-512px-square-32x32.jpgNVFD – KNOM Radio Missionhttp://www.knom.org/wp
323259285469Kitchen Fire Evacuates Sixplex, Claims Dog of Ambulance Volunteer Tenant Out on a Callhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/10/28/kitchen-fire-evacuates-sixplex-claims-dog-of-ambulance-volunteer-tenant-out-on-a-call/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/10/28/kitchen-fire-evacuates-sixplex-claims-dog-of-ambulance-volunteer-tenant-out-on-a-call/#commentsWed, 28 Oct 2015 19:57:02 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=19247No one was injured in the kitchen fire smoldering in the home of a Nome ambulance department volunteer, but the intense heat and smoke killed his dog while he was out on a call.]]>

An apartment fire early Tuesday morning called Nome firefighters to the kitchen of a Belmont Point six-unit complex, arriving to a scene of intense heat and smoke but few flames in the home of a volunteer with Nome’s ambulance department who was out on a call.

No one was injured in the blaze, but the ambulance volunteer lost his dog to the smoke.

Nome fire chief Jim West, Jr., said the call came just after 3 a.m. Tuesday, reporting a haze and the smell of smoke at the Seppala Apartment complex. West said members of the Nome Volunteer Fire Department found heavy smoke but no one home at the second-floor apartment. Firefighters quickly evacuated the building as they located the source of the smoke: something burning on the stove in one of the units.

West said it was a close call.

“The lucky part about it, [the tenant] didn’t have a window that was cracked. The building was pretty tight, as far as air movement. So once it flashed over it kind of lost oxygen,” West said. “The apartment itself was full of smoke. So it lost oxygen, and the fire actually went out, and then when we made entry there was no visible flame or anything, it was just all hot. Very hot inside.”

A team of four firefighters entered the building and extinguished the heat. West said not much water was needed to control the scene. More firefighters came to assist—ten in all—to help push the smoke out the windows and cool the room down.

West said that’s when volunteers with Nome’s ambulance department also arrived and learned the fire was at the home of one of their own.

“He had just responded to a call, and just as he was bringing the patient in, the tone-out came, and he kind of knew that something could be up. The possibility that something could be on the stove, or something of that nature,” West said.

West said they were on the scene for about an hour and a half quelling the heat and smoke. They were already in the apartment and well at work when he said firefighters with NVFD found the man’s dog, a victim of the thick smoke that filled the room.

“Very sad to lose a pet,” West said, “but no one was hurt other than that.”

Only four people were in the building at the time of the fire. The Aurora Inn offered all tenants a room in the early morning hours of Tuesday, and for as long as they need until they can return home.

The apartment building itself is owned by Bering Straits Development Corporation. Jerald Brown with BSDC said, beyond the apartment where the fire took place, the damage to the other units is minimal. The goal is to have tenants moved back in by the end of the week.

Brown said it’s too early to estimate the cost to repair the damage in the one affected apartment, but he says it’ll need to be gutted and completely redone.

Nome Police Chief John Papasodora secured three more years as head of the city’s police department after a Friday meeting of the Nome City Council renewed his tenure. Also at the meeting, outgoing city manager Josie Bahnke outlined projects and goals for the city as she departs to head up the state Division of Elections in Juneau.

The four council members at the meeting voted unanimously to renew Chief Papasodora’s contract for another three years, with an annual salary of $115,000.

On the job since 2009, the chief said he’ll continue his focus on community policing.

“It’s measured in the way the community responds to the police department,” Chief Papasodora said during the meeting, addressing the council from the podium. “It’s evolving a relationship between the community and the police officers who are serving them, because the people can see we’re not just there to put handcuffs on them, and put them in jail; we want to make their lives better, we want to give them the opportunity to do better, we want to give them the opportunity to more or less modify their own behavior.”

With the department more fully staffed than it has been in years, Chief Papasodora delivered an assessment of NPD to the council, citing overall a “stable” police force. That leaves room for specialty programs, like school resources and a new K9 unit, but the chief said one of the loftier goals for the next three years will be working to integrate the police with the volunteer fire and ambulance departments.

“It makes sense to try to build a parent agency, the Department of Public Safety, where everyone maintains their identity and maintains their purpose,” Papasodora said, stressing there were no formal plans to consolidate the three departments.

“But [the goal would be] they get a better level of support and consistency, so that their jobs are easier. That’s the whole point in doing this. The people are the volunteer fire department, volunteer ambulance department. They give every day. If we can find a way to make their jobs easier and give something back, I think it’s to the benefit of everybody,” he added.

The first step toward any kind of consolidation, Papasodora added, would be to combine the administrative work for fire, ambulance, and police.

Outgoing city manager Josie Bahnke ended Friday’s meeting, with a broad assessment of city projects, everything from the future of the deep-draft port to the Richard Foster Building to maintaining the White Alice Towers.

Bahnke highlighted other concerns that ultimately fall to the city manager that she says the council and the city will have to reckon with in the coming years. She said formalizing the city’s approach to its cemetery should be a priority.

“Our office has been working on the more technical things, as well as helping families out and picking out burial plots and walking around and taking on that role,” she said.

“My recommendation was for the mayor to appoint an ad hoc cemetery committee. It’s kind of a bigger task than the planning commission can effectively take on,” she added.

Bahnke paused. “It needs to happen,” she said solemnly. “Our residents who are moving up there deserve it.”

Two members of Nome Rotary, as well as city staff, have volunteered to lead up the committee. Incoming city manager Tom Moran will officially be at the reins at tonight’s council meeting, overseeing an agenda approving a new city clerk and setting up the October city elections.

The shack next to the City of Nome’s ice skating rink will be partly demolished after an electrical fire flared up inside the structure on Wednesday night. Nome City Manager Josie Bahnke said efforts to rebuild will begin as early as this weekend.

The small blaze started around 9 p.m. on the eastern side of the building, located at 3rd Avenue and Steadman Street. Volunteer firefighters cut into the roof with an axe and chainsaw to locate the source and douse the fire with water.

Bahnke said that killed the flames, but caused significant damage to the older, northern section of the building.

“The water has caused an extensive amount of damage between the roof and the ceiling,” she said. “And basically, the older portion is about 40 years old. So its structural integrity is pretty much ruined.”

The newer half of the building — on the southern side — remains intact. But after assessing the overall damage, Bahnke said the city decided to replace the older portion rather than repair it.

“Early preliminary costs were around $10,000 to fix it,” she said. “We’ve determined it’s not worth it trying to fix the old one. It’d probably just be time consuming and maybe even more expensive.”

Bahnke said the cost to rebuild is estimated at $12,000.

“We’ve got a preliminary plan in place to have a combination of volunteers from the Nome Hockey Association to construct the new building — whether that’s with materials donated, repurposed, or purchased using city funds,” she said.

The city is waiting on a materials estimate from a local lumber supplier before construction starts. In the meantime, Bahnke said efforts are underway to locate excess materials, conduct the demolition, and round up a road crew to haul away the old building.

No one was injured in the fire, but Bahnke said the hockey gear inside the shack incurred some smoke damage.

A small blaze ignited on Nome’s 3rd Avenue and Steadman Street this evening—damaging the warm up shack next to the city’s ice skating rink, and some of the gear inside.

Emergency dispatchers say the call went out at 9:01 p.m. with smoke spilling out of the one-story shack closest to 3rd Avenue, and within minutes, the Nome Volunteer Fire Department and Volunteer Ambulance Department were on scene.

“We had a little fire in the attic. Started in the back side,” said Nome Fire Chief Jim West Jr. “There’s two buildings together and the door was locked when I got here. Seems to be it’s in the inside where something electrical happened in there.”

West says no one was inside the building when the crew arrived and no injuries have been reported. While it appears to be an electrical issue, West says they’re not sure yet how the fire could have started.

Within 45 minutes, the fire crew had the blaze under control—and flames were never visible from the street. But accessing the source required firefighters to climb up onto the roof and peel back the shingles using a chainsaw and axe.

“What happened is it burnt through the wall and up through the eaves and up to the roof, and there was an air gap between the ceiling and there’s a layer of plywood there,” said West. “That’s why we had to vent and pull the roof.”

West says the Nome Winter Sports Association utilizes the gear shack but the City of Nome owns the lot. He estimates possibly $10,000 in damages.

Photos: Laura Kraegel/KNOM.

]]>17255Budgets, Lighting, and a New Fire Chief at City Councilhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/10/14/budgets-lighting-and-a-new-fire-chief-at-city-council/
Wed, 15 Oct 2014 00:45:05 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=12352Budgets and other fiscal business were the topic of conversation at Monday night’s Nome City Council meeting, with special emphasis on finding a solution to the lack of lighting on Nome’s Snake River Bridge.]]>

Budgets and other fiscal business were the topic of conversation at Monday night’s Nome City Council meeting, with special emphasis on finding a solution to the lack of lighting on Nome’s Snake River Bridge.

The state Department of Transportation has $2 million to add lights to the new bridge, but City Council members say the state’s unhurried pace would leave a lighting solution months if not years away. The council is now directing the city utility to install temporary lighting of its own on both sides of the bridge.

“If we can do it in-house, and we’ll be happy for temporary [lighting] as opposed to spending DOT money, that seems like a good way to approach it,” council member Matt Culley said.

That would free up the state’s $2 million—and DOT designers—to fold the permanent lighting fix into the larger project of realigning Center Creek Road, commonly called the “jail road.”

In other business, the council approved some budgetary bookkeeping, bringing its balance sheet in line with official revenue numbers. Overall the city took in $11.1 million, down from last year’s $11.3 million in revenue. The drop in revenue came as city expenses grew by about $94,000 over the same time period.

On recommendation from the utility board, the council voted to accept $8 million in loans from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for water and sewer upgrades throughout town.

Congressional Representative Don Young stopped by the city council meeting to talk deep water arctic ports and other federal projects. Rep. Young stressed the role earmarks in Washington play in those projects.

“Most small areas in this state have been ignored because, quite frankly, you don’t have the horsepower,” Young said, referring to the tendency for state funding to head to urban areas. “We have federal dollars involved. The congressman, the Senators, have a right to designate those dollars into smaller communities. Because that is where it should be going.”

Closing out the meeting, the council approved a new head for the fire department: Jim West Jr. was on hand to accept the role as chief of the Nome Volunteer Fire Department. With 31 years of experience, West was recommended unanimously by Nome firefighters to serve as the department’s new chief.

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department responded quickly to a small blaze in a shed on 1st Avenue yesterday afternoon.

“It appears that it possibly could have come from a cigarette butt,” said Jerry Steiger, NVFD’s acting chief. He says police are working to confirm the official cause of the fire, but it appears a cigarette tossed out in a can ignited a piece of insulation on the shed’s wall.

The call came in around 3:45 PM yesterday, and fire was quickly brought under control. Two ambulances and two fire vehicles were on the scene, along with officers from Nome’s police department.

“Be careful about those cigarette butts. Make sure those things are completely extinguished,” Steiger cautioned, “I think this is at least our third incident of cigarettes in cans causing fires.”

The property, near the corner of First Ave and Lanes Way near Front Street, is owned by Mark Sackett.

High winds from tonight’s storm broke off the top of a power pole on Front Street, taking a transformer with it.

Nome Joint Utility employees and volunteers from the Nome Volunteer Fire and Nome Volunteer Ambulance Departments responded. A portion of Front Street was closed off and there were no reports of injuries.